In R VS GRUBB (1915) 2 KB PAGE 683 AT PAGE 689, Lord Reading held
that where the Defendant has obtained or assumed the control of the
Property of another Person under circumstances whereby he becomes
entrusted or whereby his receipt becomes a receipt for or on account of
another person, and fraudulently converts it or the proceeds, then he has
committed an Offence. The words ‘being entrusted’ should not be read as
being limited to the moment of the sending or delivering of the Property by
the owner, but may cover any subsequent period during which a person
becomes entrusted with the Property…”
In the case of M/S INDIAN OIL CORPORATION VS M/S NEPC INDIA LTD.,
& ORS ON 20 JULY, 2006 SUPREME COURT OF INDIA; AND CENTRAL
BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION VS DUNCANS AGRO INDUSTRIES LTD.,
CALCUTTA (1996) (5) SCC 591, it was held that the Property in respect of
which Criminal Breach of Trust can be committed, must necessarily be the
Property of some Person other than the Defendant or the beneficial interest
in or ownership of it must be in that other Person and the Defendant must
hold such Property in trust for, and is accountable to, such other person or
for his benefit. If the Defendant was entitled to keep the Money and use it for
his own purposes, then plainly there could be no question of entrustment
and in ANG TECK HWA VS PP [1987] SLR (R) 513 AT [27], it was held that
it is not necessary that the loss to the owner should have been actually
suffered by that time. See also HIRA LAL CHAUDHARY AND ORS VS STATE
ON 7 MARCH 1956 AIR 1956 ALL 619.
CORNISH, J. in the case of EMPEROR VS JOHN MCIVER, AIR (1936) Mad
353, referred to the definition of the word "entrusted" by Lord Haldane in
LAKE VS SIMMONS (1927) AC 487, where His Lordship held that
entrustment may have different implications in different contexts. The
notion of a “trust” in the ordinary sense of that word is that, there is a
person, the trustee or the entrusted, in whom confidence is reposed by
another, who commits Property to him and this again supposes that the
confidence is freely given. It could cover the case of Property honestly
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